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Filmmaker Nicole Holofcener recently received a Academy-Award nomination for adapted screenplay and won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film "Can You Ever Forgive Me?." We'll revisit our conversation with Nicole – when she stopped by we talked about another one of her recent projects, "The Land of Steady Habits." She'll also discuss her childhood growing up among Hollywood filmmaking royalty. Show notes

Nicole Kidman

A brand spanking new 'Who Shot Ya?' right out of the package! This week the crew is discussing the new Karyn Kusama/ Nicole Kidman joint, Destroyer. They're joined by fellow film nerd, comedian Graham Elwood of the 'Comedy Film Nerds' podcast. The gang questions Nicole Kidman's hair choices in the film and compares her character to other great LA gumshoes of the cinematic past. Plus they discuss the movies they have flip-flopped on since originally viewing, either for good or bad, in a segment they're calling Film Floppers. And as always, they've got those tasty staff picks.

We are joined by the wonderful comedian, writer, and actor Kate Berlant. She's on the show to talk about the underappreciated Jonathan Glazer film, Birth. April and Kate dive right into this truly unique movie about a woman who's dead husband may have come back as a 10 year old boy. They make the case for this being Nicole Kidman's best performance as the role is so perfectly catered to her. They discuss the inspired vision of Jonathan Glazer and how he was the only one who could make this film. The two talk about Kate's role in Sorry to Bother You and her short film series 555. Kate elaborates on what goes into writing comedy and the kinds of white people she makes fun of. Plus, she explains why she feels compelled to make silly faces as a form of protest.

This week, Karen Tongson and Margaret Wappler are joined by clinical psychologist and actress Megan Auster-Rosen to discuss therapy in film and television shows.

Margaret Wappler is all about High Maintenance on HBO and the show’s weed dealer/confidant The Guy. Megan is all about Parkland student, Emma Gonzalez and her six minutes of silence, dedicated to the victims of the shooting at Stoneland Douglas High School. Karen is all about the NBC drama, Rise, even though it falls into some unfortunate tropes of the white man passing over the qualified woman of color for the job.

The panel will explain their first experiences with therapy in their personal lives. Then, they’ll get into therapy in such movies and shows like Big Little Lies, Meet the Fockers, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The Sopranos and more. Plus, Megan will give her professional opinion on the benefits and downsides of TV therapy shows like Dr. Phil.

Things get spooky as April talks to director Anne Hamilton about the 2001 gothic horror film, The Others. They discuss Nicole Kidman's casting in the film, the director Alejandro Amenábar's rejection of Catholicism, and how films like these just don't exist anymore. Plus, Anne discusses what she would have done differently had she directed The Others, and what is was like working on her own gothic film, American Fable.

This is a rush edition of Pop Rocket focusing on The Oscars. Guy Branum, Margaret Wappler, Karen Tongson and special guest Chris Schleicher waste no time in dishing on cinema's biggest night. They skip the "all abouts" and jams and get right to the WTF of it all--the best picture debacle, Casey Affleck and Brie Larson, bad hair, bad clapping and Hacksaw Ridge. Plus, we'll get to the bottom of why Margaret Wappler wants to be Taraji P. Henson's eyebrows when she grows up.

Guy Branum explains why he has a problem with standing ovations, and reveals a fact about director Ezra Edelman (OJ Made in America) that blew him away.
Margaret Wappler hearts Natalie Portman's performance in Jackie and, apparently, Taraji P. Henson's eyebrows.
Karen Tongson analyzes the ways Moonlight was successful in moving the lens away from gay white people.
And Chris Schleicher gets all Zapruder film in breaking down the Best Picture fiasco and gives us his theory about Faye Dunaway.